Arizona Solar Center Blog

Commentary from Arizona Solar Center Board Members and invited contributors.

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This is your source for solar and renewable energy information in Arizona. Come explore various technologies, including photovoltaics, solar water heating, solar architecture, solar cooking and wind power; keep up to date with the latest industry new...s; follow relevant lectures, expositions and tours via our events calendar. Whether you are a homeowner looking to become more energy efficient, a student learning the science behind the technologies or an industry professional, we know you will find valuable information here. This Website is presented by the Arizona Solar Center, a non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to promote the use and utilization of solar energy.More

Suntech Power (STP) has been donating solar power on a small scale to schools, community centers and even a base at the bottom of Mt Everest in Tibet for many years. Yesterday they announced a larger scale 10MW solar project in Chek Kang village.

Salt River Project customers overwhelmingly support alternative energy, especially solar, but most don't want to pay more than about $57 a year for it, according to a recent survey. The utility surveyed 423 customers last month to gauge their support for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Solar jobs are coming to Arizona. Plans for the third manufacturing plant in less than a year were announced last week. And that's on top of a new factory in Goodyear, which opened in October. This is sunny news as Arizona works to rebuild its employment base and broaden its economy.

Sempra Generation has opened a Nevada solar photovoltaic plant that it says is the country's largest. Nevada governor Brian Sandoval was on hand to help dedicate the 48 MW Copper Mountain Solar plant, located adjacent to Sempra Generation's 10 MW El Dorado Solar installation on 380 acres in Boulder City, Nev., about 40 miles southeast of Las Vegas.

First Solar Inc.'s Mesa plant represents a $300 million investment and 600 jobs for the Phoenix area.Construction will begin in the second quarter and be complete a year later with the first shipments beginning in third-quarter 2012, officials from the Tempe company announced Thursday morning.

As Tim Nilsen steps into one of his barns outside Sacramento, Calif., hundreds of turkeys snap to attention. Turkeys are the name of the game at Nilsen Farms. But his property is also serving up something else - solar energy for about 750 homes in the community.

There are about 500 openings for Valley residents to receive free training and certification to help them find jobs in the renewable-energy industry, which economic experts believe is expanding in Arizona. Three agencies in central Arizona received about half of a $6 million federal grant the state was awarded to run the State Energy Sector Partnership program.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management this week released an updated list of projects it's hoping to fast-track for development. Arizona got one, and a California facility being built by First Solar Inc. also made the list.

The Bureau of Land Management is keeping open the public comment period on its solar plan for an extra 30 days. Comments for the draft solar programmatic environmental impact statement will be accepted until April 16.

Can the collaborative-development model made famous by websites like Wikipedia also help to standardize and simplify solar power purchase agreements (PPAs)? San Mateo, Calif.-based Tioga Energy Inc. says it has taken a critical first step toward open, accessible PPAs by making its SurePath PPA available to the public and fellow industry members.

It is official: China is now the world's largest consumer of energy. And its twelfth five-year plan will set annual GDP growth at 7.0% for the next five years. The plan also outlines a tectonic shift in the structure of the Chinese economy away from export-oriented manufacturing in the face of unstable external demand, towards a service-based economy with more domestic consumption.

Southwest Solar Technologies of Phoenix, AZ has announced the commissioning of North America's biggest commercial solar dish, one of the largest concentrated photovoltaic solar (CSP) thermal dish collectors in the world.

Gestamp Renewables will set up shop in Surprise in a new building designed to build steel for large solar projects around the state and the Southwest. The project, announced Tuesday afternoon, will employ 50 people in the project's first phase of 75,000 square feet.